The White House spent a week and tried to downplay the revelation that the top national officials discussed the plans for American strikes in Yemen at the Houth Militants on the signal, the commercial application for sending messages.
In the stunning violation of the national security, Minister of Defense Pete HegSeth published specific operational details before attacks in the group chat – which unintentionally included the editor -in -chief of Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg. Michael Waltz, an advisor to the National Security, who added Mr. Goldberg to the chat, said he took over the “full responsibility” for the escape.
Several Democrats called on Mr. Hegset to resign. However, Trump’s administration tried to avert or avert these problems. (Mr. Trump said the scandal was “Witch Hunting”.)
In the regular check-in during the first 100 days of Mr. Trump in the office, the New York Times asked five voters what he thought of the administration reaction.
Dave Abdallah was not satisfied with how Mr. Trump and the people around him still reduced signal chat violations.
“He’s wrong,” Mr. Adballah said.
Breach, he added, could cost soldiers their lives. “It’s a serious, serious mistake,” he said of the whole affair.
Mr. Abdallah, a real estate agent who emigrated to the United States from Lebanon as a child, voted for the candidate on the green side of Jill Stein in elections 2024. Yet Mr. Abdallah hoped that foreign policy of Mr. Trump could bring peace and stability to the region.
He has been disappointed so far.
Recently, the fighting continued between Israel and Hamas. Now Mr. Abdallah believes that Mr. Trump, his administration and supporters have proved to be hypocritical because they face resistance for the signal affair.
He remembered when he saw a recent video tiktok that showed that old Republican clips criticized Hillary Clinton using a private computer server when she was a secretary during Obama’s administration. The video then showed pictures of the same critics, now Mr. Trump’s supporters, bending a signal chat as no big problem and apology.
Such excuses hit Mr. Abdallah as honest. “I just can’t understand it,” he said of the signal chat. “So it should be on the table to get rid of someone.”
– Kurt Street
“I don’t think it should be released because it’s not as serious as many people think.”
Perry Hunter, 55 years, from Sellersburg, Ind.
When Perry Hunter first heard that Trump officials accidentally included journalists in a signal chat, he thought it was a significant management mistake and that he had to have consequences.
But just as he did in response to many news events related to Trump from the inauguration, Mr. Hunter said he took the time to learn the details before deciding what he thought of the situation. This time he finally thought that the scandal was not a scandal at all and said that chatting did not include any specific war plans and reflected the description of the White House. This caused the news from his eyes benign. (Defense experts were shocked by the level of detail in the chat.)
“Someone made a mistake,” he said, adding, “I don’t think it should be released for it, because it’s not as serious as many people think it is.”
Mr. Hunter, a high school teacher, would think differently, if the Americans were killed for information shared in the chat. In that case he said, “Yes, someone should lose a job and someone should go to prison.” He added, “I think it’s one of those things that were lucky and would rather learn from it.”
Hearing Democrats criticize the administration over the violation, he said it was hypocritical to be so upset. He compared a violation with the mistakes of officials involved in the download of Biden from Afghanistan or in the use of the private e -mail server Mrs. Clinton for official communication.
“No one we know that he wasn’t responsible in these situations,” Hunter said. “And there was a failure in all these situations, a great failure.”
– Juliet Macur
“If it happens again, even in one or two or three years, then no one learned anything.”
Tali Jackkont, 57, from Los Angeles
“I have to tell you I was in shock,” said Tali Jackont, educator. “There are things that can’t happen and it happened.”
Mrs. Jacnont compared it with how closely the military secrets were maintained in Israel, her home country. When Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service, performs surgery, no one is responsible, even if it seems obvious, she said. “No one will tell you until they tell you,” she said.
At this point, it did not concern that someone involved would be released, “but there must be better attention,” she said.
Did the management learn their lesson? “Time will say,” said Mrs. Jacnont. Meanwhile, it seemed as if they were mostly brushing under the carpet, she said, but she was thinking about what conversations could take place behind the closed door.
“If it happens again, even in one or two or three years, then no one learned anything,” she said. “And it will, I don’t want to use the word disaster, but a great pity.”
– Campbell Robertson
“Imagine someone from another country with harmful intentions, take this information and hurt us and our army.”
Jaime Escobar Jr., 46, from Rome, Texas
As the mayor of the small border town of Jaime Escobar Jr. He knew how important it was to protect sensitive government information. So, when he read the signal chat messages, he feared that the officials in question were trying to clean the matter too quickly.
“That’s just very, it’s a heavy pill that swallows,” he said of the problem. “There must be strong messages. We cannot allow this to happen. Imagine someone from another country with harmful intentions, take this information and hurt us and our army.”
Mr. Escobar, who voted for Mr. Trump as a Democrat after years, remained concerned that officials could not check something as simple as who received this information as a journalist.
“That’s a big mistake and they just have to be extremely careful,” he said. “It is a lesson that needs to be learned very quickly and cannot be repeated.”
At the same time, he felt satisfied that Mr. Waltz, who admitted the creation of a group chat, accepted his responsibility.
“He took it, whether it was his fault or not, he is like,” Well, I’m the guy who was in charge of national security, “he said. As for the other consequences?” Well, it will have to be on the president. “
– Edgar Sandal
“The left left should not fight much or resisted with it. It would seem to give them support.”
Isaiah Thompson, 22, from Washington, DC
When Isaiah Thompson learned that higher Trump officials shared sensitive war details on the signal, he immediately wondered how any member of the federal government could make such a mistake. Then he wondered how the Democrats – rather than Republicans – would respond.
“The left left should not fight much or resisted with it. It would seem that it could give them a support or something that could push back,” he said. “I don’t know how the federal government could get something like that so badly.”
Mr. Thompson, a university student who voted for Kamal Harris but supports the Green Party, said the signal chat was just another example of lack of responsibility or checks and balances in Trump administration. Yet it hesitates to support the shooting of Mr. Hegset or Mr. Waltz over their roles in the signal scandal – at least not yet.
“Before someone is released or asked to resign, there must be a deep investigation,” Mr. Thompson said. “But the president does not heal it seriously. It was a violation of national security.”
– Audra DS Burch
